NVIDIA will build a 30-MW research supercomputer based on the latest generation Blackwell accelerators worth about half a billion dollars in northern Israel for $500 million, The Register reported. Construction of the cluster began last year, and it is planned to be completed in the first half of 2025.
The exact number of accelerators is not specified. NVIDIA has several liquid-cooled reference Blackwell systems with varying numbers of accelerators. According to Israeli media publications, the full configuration of the new supercomputer will include “several thousand” GPUs, which will allow it to compete with the national supercomputer Israel-1. Israel-1 is built on 2048 NVIDIA H100 accelerators, combined using 80 Spectrum-4 switches. The supercomputer has a peak FP64 performance of up to 137 Pflops, and FP8 – up to 8 Eflops.
Image source: NVIDIA
The Register noted that the project may be affected by new US export restrictions. According to the AI Diffusion rule, Israel is a second-tier country with a quota for the supply of up to 50 thousand advanced accelerators over a two-year period (2025–2027). However, these rules will come into force 120 days from the date of publication, so NVIDIA has enough time to supply the required number of accelerators to Israel.
Given Israel’s strong ties with the United States, there is a high probability that the country will be granted National Verified End User status, which will increase the import limit to 320 thousand accelerators over a two-year period, The Register noted.